PRIVACY POLICY

Introduction

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Travel HQ (THQ) complies with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 when dealing with personal information.  Personal information is information about an identifiable individual (a natural person).  We only collect personal information where this is necessary to carry out our business.

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This policy sets out how we will collect, use, store, disclose and protect your personal information.  This may be collected in person, via www.travelhq.co.nz, email, social media, over the phone or through other channels. We also explain your rights to access and correct your personal information.  

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This policy does not limit or exclude any of your rights under the Act. If you wish to seek further information on the Act, see www.privacy.org.nz.

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Changes to this policy

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We may update this privacy statement from time to time, for example to reflect changes to the Privacy Act, so check back to see what might have changed.

This policy was last updated in January 2021.

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The information we collect

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Most of the personal information we collect is provided directly by you with your consent, or your authorised representative, when you engage with us for our services. We require you to obtain the necessary consents from individuals to provide user data to us and permit us to use it as set out in this privacy policy. We collect personal information from or about children aged under 16 for the purposes of providing travel services. We rely on your representation that you have appropriate individual or parental consent for any children included in a booking with us. 

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• your name

• your contact details, including address and location, email address or phone number

• date of birth

• gender

• passport details

• drivers licence details

• credit card information

• purchase history

• any other information we may require and you choose to provide us to do business with you

• we may collect sensitive information when you provide us with your meal preferences and confirm certain travel preferences

While you do not have to provide us with some of the information that we may request, this may mean that our services may not perform as well as they should, or that we may not be able to provide some parts of our services to you. 

How do we use your personal information

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We will only use the personal information you provide to us for the purposes of delivering the services you have requested (such as booking your travel) or carrying out our lawful functions.

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• verify your identity

• Provide services to you ie travel booking

• provide you with travel documentation

• market our services to you, including contacting you electronically (e.g. by email )

• respond to communication from you, including enquiries or a complaint

• publish on our websites (e.g. comments on pages) with your permission

• improve our website and the delivery of our online services

• bill you and collect money that you owe us, including authorising and processing credit card transactions

• protect and/or enforce our legal rights and interests, including defending any claim

• respond to lawful requests by public authorities, including to comply with law enforcement requirements, or for any other purpose authorised by you or applicable law. 

We may transfer your information in the case of a sale, merger, consolidation, liquidation, reorganisation or acquisition.

Disclosing your personal information

We may disclose your personal information to: 

• any business that supports and delivers our services and products, including any person that hosts or maintains any underlying IT system or data centre that we use to provide our websites, products or services or that we use to process payments

• a credit reference agency for the purpose of credit checking you

• professional advisers e.g. accountants, lawyers or auditors

• a person who can require us to supply your personal information (e.g. a law enforcement agency or regulatory authority)

• any other person with your consent 

• any other company in the case of a sale, merger, consolidation, liquidation, reorganisation or acquisition

• any other person authorised by applicable law. 

A business that supports our services and products may be located outside New Zealand which means your personal information may be held and processed outside New Zealand.  Travel HQ acts as a travel agent on behalf of travel service suppliers.  Relevant personal information that we collect at the time of your booking or quote will need to be provided to for example, airlines in order to process your booking/quote. Where travel service suppliers are located outside of New Zealand, we cannot guarantee that your Ppersonal information will be protected to the same standards that apply in New Zealand. By proceeding with your booking/quote, you acknowledge and consent to this arrangement on behalf of all travellers.

Protecting your personal information

We take all reasonable technical and organisational steps to ensure the personal information we collect is protected against loss, unauthorised access and disclosure or any other misuse.

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We store most of the personal information we collect and generate electronically in Dropbox. We also use GSuite for our email and other office productivity applications. This means that the personal information we hold may be transferred to, or accessed from, countries other than New Zealand.

We ensure that our third party data processors can meet our privacy and security requirements to protect information it holds on our behalf.

Accessing and correcting your personal information

Subject to certain grounds for refusal under applicable law, you have the right to access your personal information that we hold and to request a correction to your personal information.  Before you exercise this right, we will need evidence to confirm that you are the individual to whom the personal information relates.

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Where you request a correction, if we think the correction is reasonable and we are reasonably able to change your personal information, we will make the correction.  In all other cases, we will take reasonable steps to make a note of the personal information that was the subject of your correction request.

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If you want to exercise either of the above rights, email nicki@travelhq.co.nz.  Your email should provide evidence of who you are and set out the details of your request (e.g. the personal information to be corrected and the correction that you are requesting).

You have the option to opt in to certain services (including receiving our newsletter) and to opt out of those services at any stage. This means you may change your mind at any stage about participating in any of our services.

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Internet use

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While we take reasonable steps to maintain secure internet connections, if you provide us with personal information over the internet, the provision of that information is at your own risk.

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If you follow a link on our websites to another website, the owner of that website will have its own privacy policy relating to your personal information.  We suggest you review that website’s privacy policy before you provide personal information to that owner or website.

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DATA Retention policy

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The personal information that we collect and use will not be kept longer than necessary for the purposes for which it is collected, or for the duration required for compliance with applicable law, whichever is longer.  

Contacting us

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If you have any questions about this privacy policy, or our privacy practices, or if you would like to request access to, or correction of, your personal information, please contact Nicki Turnbull at nicki@travelhq.co.nz or phone 027 548 4666.

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Cookie policy

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We use cookies on our website and as part of our related services and receive information collected through cookies. This cookie policy explains how we use cookies and how you can opt out of cookies.  

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A cookie is a small file that resides on your computer and is recognised by our server when you visit our website. A cookie does not provide us with any personally identifiable information. It does provide details of your IP address, the computer platform that you use (eg Mac or Windows), the date/time you visited the site, the search terms you used, the pages you accessed and the browser that you use.  We use cookies to track the traffic patterns to our site and ensure that the most relevant content is being shown. 

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Cookies can be used to collect information relating to your use of a website or your device, let you navigate between pages effectively, help to remember your preferences and generally improve your browsing experience.  Cookies can also help ensure advertising you see online is more relevant to you and your interests.

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By continuing to use our websites and related services, you indicate your agreement for us to use cookies.

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We use Google Analytics to collect information about visitors to our website, relating to your device, browser, IP address, network location, and website activities to measure and report statistics about your interactions on our websites.  We use this information to help us manage the performance and design of our websites and to improve our websites.  For further information on how Google uses your personal information when you use our websites and how to opt out of Google’s use of cookies, see here.  In addition to the process described in this link, you can opt out using the process described below.

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If you would rather we did not use cookies with you, you can refuse them by turning them off in your browser and/or deleting them from your hard drive. You will still be able to visit our sites.

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Third party website cookies

If you follow a link on our websites to another website, the owner of that website will have its own cookies.  We suggest you review that website’s cookie policy before you visit that website.

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Links to social networking services

We use social networking services such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to communicate. When you communicate with us using these services, the social networking service may collect your personal information for its own purposes. These services may track your use of our website on those pages where their links are displayed. If you are logged in to those services (including any Google service) while using our site, their tracking will be associated with your profile with them. These services have their own privacy statements which are independent of ours. They do not have any access to the personal information we hold on our systems.